Hoshiarpur
Six robbers arrested with arms: With the arrest of six people, district police on Monday claimed to have busted a gang of robbers. According to Hoshiarpur SSP Balkar Singh Sidhu, the Bulhowal police got information that some robbers were hiding in a closed factory at Badala Mahi village. Police immediately raided the factory and arrested six accused identified as Sanjiv Kumar, Sarabjit Kumar, Budh Parkash, Satish Kumar, Romesh Pal, and Ram Pal, all are resident of Shamchaurasi village. However, one of their accomplices, Laddi, managed to escape. The police seized one .12 bore country-made pistol along with two live cartridges, two motorcycles, three scooters, one sickle and one scythe from the arrested members. They were booked under Sections 394, 402 and 411 of the IPC. Ram Pal was further booked under Sections 25, 54 and 59 of the Arms Act.

NawanshahrMan held with heroin: The police has arrested Chandan Sharma of Rahon during a naka put up at Hiala-Ghakewal link road. They recovered 10 gm heroin from his possession. A case under Sections 21, 61 and 85 of the NDPS has been registered at Sadar police station against him.

Man dies in road mishap: Gurpreet Singh (27) of Kang village was killed on the spot when his scooter rammed into a stationary tractor-trailer near Hiala village on Nawanshahr-Rahon road here on late Sunday night. According to sources, Gurpreet had come here on his tractor-trailer to unloaded sugarcanes at the local Sugar Mills on Sunday. He took a scooter from a friend to return home but due to the dense fog and low visibility his scooter rammed into a tractor-trailer.

Tarn
TaranFormer DSP assaulted: A retired DSP, Inderjit Verma, resident of Jalandhar, was attacked by four armed youths near Nagoke Gharat village, 30 km from here, on Sunday. The Verowal police has registered a case under Sections 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs 50 or more) and 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation) of the IPC. According to sources, the retired DSP was going to Khadur Sahib from Jalandhar on his car (No PB-08 BF, 0089). He was stopped by the shrouded youths near Nagoke Gharat. As soon as Verma came out of his car the youths attacked him with sharp-edged weapon and baseball bats. They also had pistol in their possession. He said the youths alleged that he during his tenure as SHO and DSP booked their associates in false cases. The attackers also damaged his car with baseball bats and threatened to kill him. The police said the accused would be identified soon.

HARYANA

Jhajjar
12 students hurt: As many as 12 students of a private polytechnic here were injured in a collision between a tempo and trailer on the Jhajjar-Dadri road near Khativaas village here on Monday. Five among them have been referred to the PGIMS at Rohtak while the rest are under treatment in the Civil Hospital. A case has been registered against the driver of the trailer who managed to flee.

Sonepat
2 youths killed: Two youths, Tezbir (21) and Issu (20), of the Jatwara area here were run over by the Gareeb Rath Express train near the local sugar mill on Sunday. The train was on its way to Patna from Amritsar. A team of the Government Railway Police (GRP) reached the spot from Sonepat and brought the bodies to the local Civil Hospital for a post-mortem examination. The victims were reportedly crossing the railway track when the accident took place.

HIMACHAL PRADESH

CHAMBA
Biker killed: A bike rider was killed on the spot while another riding along with him was seriously wounded when a scooter went off the road near Chilahani Mor in the suburbs of Chamba town on Sunday, according to a report received here on Monday. The report said the deceased had been identified as
Subhash.

KangraMasroor Festival: The first Masroor Festival within the precincts of the monolithic rock-cut temple would be inaugurated by Chief Minister PK Dhumal on December 21, 2011.
The festival would be an annual affair. The 15 richly carved rock temples at Masroor sculpted in the splendid style of the Kailash temple at
Elora, which dates back to the 8th Century.

NURPURDelivery in
ambulance: Reshma from Sohar, a nearby village, delivered a healthy baby girl in the 108 ambulance attached to the local civil hospital on Monday morning. According to information, it was the first delivery reported in the local ambulance. Manu Parmar and Anju Bala, emergency medical technicians of the 108 ambulance, assisted in the safe delivery of the woman. The woman delivered the baby in the ambulance on the way to Civil Hospital, Nurpur. The duo have been admitted to the hospital.

JAMMU
& KASHMIR

JammuSchool holds alumni meet: Sainik School, Nagrota, organised an alumni meet here today. A large number of former students of the school turned up on the occasion along with their families. Group Captain Ajay Kumar, principal of the school, said the institution was taking rapid strides in producing excellent officers for the armed forces and in other walks of life as well.
Randhir Singh Billawaria, chairman of NEXAS, assured the school of all possible help for its development.

Society urges PM for help: Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Children’s Welfare Society Gurdeep Singh Sasan today wrote a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking help to enable the NGO to carry out its work more effectively. The NGO has been working to spread awareness among the people about female
foeticide.

Reasi
Hideout busted, arms recovered: The security forces busted a militant hideout and recovered arms and ammunition in the remote Mahore region of Reasi district on Monday. DSP (Operations) Gourav Mahajan said on a tip-off the Army and the police jointly launched a search operation in the Mahore region and busted a hideout of the Hizbul Mujahideen in the Nad Ghali forest area, near Challad village in Mahore.

Srinagar
Two killed in accidents: At least two persons, including a girl, had been killed and four others injured in road accidents in Kashmir since Sunday. The police here said Bashir Ahmad Khan was injured when he was hit by a truck near Lal Mandi here. He was admitted to the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital, Srinagar, where he died. In another accident, Mehnaz Jan was killed when she was hit by a tractor at Kunzar, Tangmarg in Baramulla district.

DEHRADUN

Doctor thrashed: Three boys thrashed Doctor Vinod Chauhan who runs ‘Pile Care Centre’ at Shastri Nagar. The boys are acquaintance of a girl from Vikasnagar, who has levelled molestation charges on Chauhan when she appeared for an interview for the position of a receptionist on December 15 in his clinic. The doctor did not suffer any serious injury in the attack. He denied the charges and filed an FIR against the boys. The Nehru Colony police is investigating the case.

Kumaon Briefs

Agitating youths go on rampage:
The office of the Additional Director of Education (Kumaon) was a theatre of chaos on Monday as agitating youngsters went on a rampage and caused disruption of work. A total of 104 agitators from across Kumaon have been agitating outside the office over the past three days. Dependents of employees who have died during their services have been demanding appointment letters with regard to the employment promised to them. Losing their patience, the youngsters not only made the work at the office come to a standstill but also created an ugly scene by using abusive language.

Class IV employees hold protest:
The agitating Class IV employees of the state government held a massive demonstration in Nainital on Monday. The agitators turned up in hundreds to carry out a protest march across the town bringing traffic movement to a standstill. The protestors carried banners and placards as they marched down from the Mallital to Tallital areas shouting slogans against the state government. They accused the state government for not fulfiling their demands. The agitators have been on strike for more than three weeks on the unresolved issues pertaining to their wages. They have been holding protests at Tallital on daily basis.

Fog hits traffic:
Traffic movement across Kumaon continues to be hampered on the account of fog. The worst affected is the rail traffic as most of the trains heading to Kathgodam and Lal Kuan are reaching late by several hours, thus causing inconvenience to the passengers. Even the buses destined for Haldwani and Rudrapur are arriving late because of the dense fog across the region.

Landslide causes road blockage:
The Bhawali-Almora road was once again blocked near Jaurasi on Sunday following yet another landslide. There was a traffic blockade as a large number of vehicles lined up on both sides of the debris. The road was re-opened after an hour. It was barely three days ago that the road had been opened for traffic movement during the day after it had remained closed for nine days. The road had been devastated in the rain-related disaster of September 2010. Ever since then, it has been witnessing landslides at regular intervals leading to traffic blockades.

Wood not available at cremation ground:
Residents of villages around Devalthal in Pithoragarh district are agitated over the unavailability of wood at the Kamtoli cremation grounds for burning the dead. They have stated that villagers from Bisun, Bamdoli, Suvalekh, Devalthal, Bungachina, Kaulapani etc. have to carry their dead to another cremation ground located 25 kilometres away. The villagers have sent across a memorandum to the office of the Chief Minister BC Khanduri seeking his intervention in the matter.